Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Eugene Robinson writes about the need to respond to climate breakdown with ambition rather than undue hesitation. Martin Wolf rightly points out that pricing alone won't get us anywhere close to reducing carbon emissions to a sustainable level in time to avert catastrophe. And Simon Wren-Lewis argues that to the extent the cost of averting environmental catastrophe can't be funded through immediate tax revenue, it's worth dealing with through public debt.

- Daniel Aldana Cohen points out the role a massive investment in housing can play in securing both climate progress and social health. And Amy Lubik and Warren Bell make the case for a forceful move toward eliminating poverty.

- Jason Walls reports on New Zealand's plans to ensure that digital giants pay their fair share of taxes. But Elizabeth Thompson reports that the Libs instead can't be bothered even to examine their role in distorting electoral outcomes before Canadians next go to the polls.

- Nick Taylor-Vaisey highlights some of the actors complicit in SNC Lavalin's evasion of legal consequences for bribery and corruption, while Andrew Roman takes a closer look at the Libs' conflation of political decision-making and prosecutorial discretion. And Giuseppe Valiante reports on the stayed prosecution against one of the executives at the centre of its dealings in Libya.

- Finally, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions releases new poll data showing strong public support for a universal pharmacare plan.